The present invention relates to a weaving device comprising a sley and means for forming a weft section of warp threads, whereby a device for introducing and decelerating respectively a projectile for transporting a weft thread from a supply spool through the section of warp threads is disposed on one or on both sides of said weft section, whereby a plurality of spaced-apart guides are present on said sley, which guides function to guide the projectile within the section of warp threads.
Weaving devices of the kind referred to above are generally known and are for example described in Dutch Patent Application No. 73 09 850 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,831,640. With this type of weaving devices a weft thread is attached from a supply spool to a projectile, also referred to as shuttle, which projectile is launched from the introducing station and transported through the weft section via guides disposed in said weft section. With the device according to the aforesaid Dutch patent application the guides and the projectile are thereby designed in such a manner that an aerodynamic layer of air is created between the projectile and the guides during the transport of said projectile through said guides, resulting in a reduced friction between said projectile and said guides.
A drawback of this known device is that all the energy that is required for the transport of the projectile through the weaving section must be imparted to the projectile at the start of the movement, in the introducing station, therefore. In order to be able to transport the projectile through a weaving section of reasonable width, a very great amount of energy needs to be imparted to the projectile at the start of its movement, which means using a very high starting velocity, which in turn results in high peak stresses in the weft thread to be transported. Furthermore this means that the projectile needs to have a relatively high mass of its own.